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Tuesday, 12 August 2014

REVIEW: Spring Food & Wine

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Ahhh...expectations were high.

Since I've been blogging reviews, I've started to really take note of a lot more things when I eat out. I note the service and the little extra touches that restaurants do, and as such, I've just noticed that most places really try to do their best. I was thinking, maybe I'll never post a less than positive review! I have been as critical while remaining fair as I could but I just haven't had a bad experience...until now. ﻿

This kitchen is pretty cute hey. Imagine having that in your house!

I'd been hanging out to go to Spring for literally over a year. The menu looks so good and the website makes it sound fresh and spectacular, with organic food and farm to table eating. Unfortunately, I did not have the spectacular experience that I thought was all but guaranteed.
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A nice coffee. The coffee must have been good cos the coffee drinkers went back for more!

We arrived at Spring early on a Wednesday morning for a girls catch up before work. I was so excited and when I walked in, I was simply chuffed with the interior. It is so French, provincial and charming. We were seated with the rest of our party and perused the menu. Everything sounded pretty good and we were quickly decided on what we would get.
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I don't have the guts to go for green juices. Like, they look so healthy and people love them but why go green when you can go pink! Pink juice is where it's at.

When I caught the attention of the waiter and asked to order, he told me that drinks were first. This kind of perturbed me as it was obvious we were all dressed to go to work and you would think on a work day, efficiency would be key. Whatever, we ordered drinks and were left to wait to order our food.
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A slightly blurry photo of the watermelon special. Looks a bit like a Halloween drink. It was really nice though.

For drinks, we ordered a Watermelon Special juice which is apple, watermelon, mint and lime, a Miss Berry juice of mixed berries, apple and orange, a Sweet Green juice of cucumber, spinach, celery, kale and watermelon as well as a couple of coffees. All the juices were $7.50. There was a big juicing machine in the kitchen and they were all very fresh.
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And this is my drink! The pink beauty.

Once the waiter had deigned to take our order with his most least interested face on, the Farmhouse Breakfast ($22) proved to be most popular with 3 orders with Smashed Avocado on home-baked sourdough toast ($10) a close runner up with two of us ordering the dish. The Farmhouse Breakfast looked decent and came with all the expected trappings of a big breakfast with eggs, bacon, tomato, sausages, mushrooms, spinach and toast. A gluten free order had the sourdough swapped with gluten free bread. My fellow diners said the bacon was very well cooked. The sausages also looked fat and plump.
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The Farmhouse Breakfast and you can see the gluten free farmhouse with the gluten free bread. I tried some of that bread and it was alright. Poor gluten free people.

I was less impressed with the avocado on toast. The presentation was quite poor. I ordered a side of mushrooms for $5 and received four pretty sad looking mushrooms on the side. I guess the avocado on toast was on the cheaper side for breakfast at$10 but I was pretty disappointed with the mushrooms. Way over priced. And I didn't think the bread was all that good compared with the bread I had at Chester Street Bakery.
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Those mushrooms look miserable. They need Xanax or something. It's like avosadco on toast.

My fellow avocado on toaster ordered a side of haloumi for $5 and I thought it looked equally depressed. As there was no salt on the table, I asked the waiter for some salt and was given an empty shaker. That's not enough really to upset me but when I asked for a different one, I was given instructions on how to use the shaker and told it wasn't really empty in a manner I found rude. After negotiating the release of a different salt shaker like the release of a hostage from Fallujah, I finished my meal with a sour taste in my mouth from the dismissive and unhelpful waiter.
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That haloumi is trying to hide under the toast. It can't even.

I found the food at Spring pretty average but it was the service that really stuck in my craw. The waitress who rung up our bill at the end was actually really lovely and perhaps if she'd been our server the whole time, I might be back to Spring to see if they were having an off day.
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The coffee must be good! Look at that line up for takeaways.

However, with the attitude of the man who did serve us, I think I'll try somewhere else next time. There are so many great places opening every week in Brisbane, I really don't have to put up with bad service. Food: 2/5Service: 1/5Price: 3/5Atmosphere: 3/5